Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Crane shot

One of the toughest shots the crew and I did in Aso and other parts of Kyushu last year for the documentary was this one, the infamous Crane Shot.

The crane took almost two hours to set up, so we had to get to the tea field at the crack of dawn—before the tea grower did—so that we'd be all ready to go when he got there.

Because the crane wouldn't always behave as we wanted it to, we had to redo more than a couple of shots, which didn't exactly please the grower much, but he did his best to accommodate us.

After filming, the crane then took another hour to break down and put away. In its six-foot-long torpedo-shaped case, stretching from the back of my headrest to the hatchback door, the crane took up more space in our van than any other piece of equipment.

And because, in the event of an accident, my head would have slowed down the case only imperceptibly on its way through the windshield, the crane was also a large incentive to drive safely.